Of nights, days, and moments
by Belle of the Asylum
Summary: With their life as a shinobi, there was no assurance that they were going to be a complete family and always happy.  SasuSaku family


_Standard disclaimer applied_

_SasuSaku_

_AU-ish_

_OOC-ish [?]_

* * *

The night was deeply drowned in silence that even the tragicomedy playing on the TV failed to drain it out. Background laughter of an audience was heard from the TV but their laughter sounded somewhat solemn and grave for the woman watching it.

She seemed to be spacing out, hearing the laughter and seeing the audience as a part of the world she forsook; the whole world was just there but felt like it wasn't. Her thin, small hand went to caress her swollen belly as though comforting it from the surreal night.

It had been two weeks since the day of the expected arrival of the unborn child's father and the horrid truth that his delay was still for unknown reasons kept Sakura worried like hell. Not a word about Sasuke has reached her and the strong stillness of the night made her paranoid about his reason for absence.

"_What if they were abducted, torture, or held as hostage?"_

The rosette thought, the rims of her eyes getting filled with tears.

"_What if they're dead?"_

Truth be told; she couldn't care as much for 'them' than she could for 'him'. Not wanting to think more of it and with the exhaustion of her anxiety, she switched off the TV and retreated to her room with the hopes of getting some sleep this time and not speed-naps.

Unfortunately, that Saturday was no exception than than the past 14 days. She woke up that morning with blacker eye-bags and three hours of shut-eye to sustain her day.

As she was lazily making breakfast, the telephone rang. The sound it made caused Sakura to jerk in her seat. It felt like ages since that phone ever rang that it all sounded alien to her. With the hope of hearing about her husband (or from he himself) she answered the phone with trembling hands and a hopeful voice.

"Hello, good morning."

"Hey, Sakura!" No, the reply wasn't husky or deep or even masculine. It was Ino. Sakura could only silently sigh in disappointment before faking a cheery tone.

"Hey Ino. Long time since I've heard you." It truly has been but she still longed to hear Sasuke on the phone more than anyone else, telling her that it's all right and that he'll be back soon. But that was a reverie. The voice she was hearing right now assured her nothing but big discounts in the malls. Not that that was a bad thing, really.

"So, you coming?" Ino inquired excitedly. She knew that Sasuke wasn't home yet and that Sakura was worried like hell. There wasn't much she could do but distract the rosette from sad thoughts.

Shopping for baby clothes was her plan.

"I don't think I can." Sakura replied, her tone showing fervent disinterest.

"Aw, come on. Don't lock yourself up. You haven't gotten some real sunshine since last month." The blonde whined, insisting that breathing something else other than her daft home was good for the baby.

"But Ino-"

"No buts. You need the entertainment of the outside world."

"Look, I appreciate it-"

"Good. Then prepare your clothes and comfy loafers."

At her third attempt at persuasion they agreed to meet by lunch time.

They ate lunch at some French restaurant that Sakura didn't even bother to give a second glance since it seemed Ino has eaten in this place before given that she knew what to order.

"How've you been, Sakura?" Ino inquired with a jolly smile across her face as she surrendered their menus to the waiter.

"Been doing well." Though Sakura smiled back, her actions were half-hearted and especially her words.

"Good. How's the baby coming?"

"She's really healthy."

"That's wonderful. When are you going to have her?"

"This June. Probably early June."

Though her smile was still intact, Ino couldn't help but feel as though she was interviewing a dying woman. Well, she couldn't blame Sakura since it's not like that wasn't what the rosette felt deep inside.

After all, it was her job to revive her best friend.

As more customers came, less food on their plate, and more jolly the conversation grew and all the time none of them ever uttered a single word about Sasuke or his absence. Much to the rosette's convenience.

After the lunch, they headed to the mall and spent the whole afternoon looking for baby stuff and maternity clothes for Sakura.

Ino walked the rosette home that early evening, leaving her things to remember like

"The healthier you are the better for the baby."

And

"There's no longer just you. Don't be selfish or else that pretty thing in your tummy will suffer."

With those thing said, they both exchanged good-byes and for the first time, despite the growing distress and worry in her, Sakura actually felt stronger.

At the thought of their daughter, she knew she had to keep her spirits strong.

Maybe the telephone grew a certain longing to be held since it rang yet again; the second time it did for the whole day.

"Good evening." Though a bit lively in manner, there was that tiredness that she couldn't quite hide.

"Same to you, Sakura-chan." For the slightest moment, Sakura felt anticipation and hope ignite for two reasons: one, she missed that perky and energetic nature of Naruto that overtly streamed through the phone and two, as the Hokage, he knows firsthand regarding ninja missions…no matter how many of them which means he should know about Sasuke's delayed arrival.

"Oh, Naruto, I-I mean Hokage-sama. I've been expecting a call from you." Sakura spoke quickly without much thought except Sasuke.

Naruto laughed, glad to hear Sakura forget to address him as Hokage. He wasn't use to hearing his name nowadays.

"Sorry if I've called just now." Though the smile was on his lips were intact, his aura started to grow grim and Sakura could feel it.

"Yes, is there any news regarding Sasuke? When will he be back? Is he okay?" Sakura sounded like a news reporter in a crowded conference excluding the blatant anxiety that was in her words. She was in the verge of crying, again, and it frustrated her because she didn't know why.

Excitement?

Worry?

"Sakura-san," Naruto's tone became dead serious. "We cannot locate Sasuke's whereabouts. Their team has been missing since two weeks ago." The soberness in his voice betrayed the jolly him moments ago.

_Perhaps I shouldn't have said that too soon._ He thought in remorse. But how could he have stopped his mouth when his mind was jumbled up in confusion and, like Sakura, in worry?

And Sakura? Well, she was enraged.

Greatly enraged.

"Damn it, Naruto. You're the Hokage for crying out loud! Why didn't you fucking inform me about this earlier?" It was out of her league to cuss, certainly not a very Sakura thing to say but she was livid with anger that she couldn't place a hold on her words.

"Sakura I'm terribly sorry. I didn't plan to inform you beforehand since I wanted to confirm Sasuke's location before telling you anything else."

Sakura was about to retort but Naruto cut him off promptly.

"I wouldn't just say he's missing without even trying to find him. We still are looking for him as well as his team. I've sent the ANBUs this time." He apologized and assured Sakura but even he himself doubted whether the search will really be successful.

The rosette kept quiet, calming herself in order to analyze the situation and find the logic.

"Right, I'm sorry Hokage-sama, I didn't mean to haplessly burst out." She said quietly, her fingers twirling the telephone wire out of embarrassment at her reckless behavior.

"Hey, no problem Sakura-chan. You shouldn't have apologized anyway since I really should have told you for the most part, I was panicking because, well, you're both family to me and…your baby, I didn't want you to worry…for the baby's sake." Naruto reasoned in a sheepish tone and Sakura could only sigh at him.

What a Naruto thing to do and say.

With those words spoken, both hung up and Sakura, and even with the small assurance of a search team dispatched, wept with all bitterness in her heart. Her fears grew about Sasuke being dead. Two weeks missing was a scary prospect.

She was terribly saddened and all she could do was caress her growing womb, assuring nothing to herself or their daughter.

It had been a week since Naruto called and he's been updating Sakura regarding the search mission for three days straight.

Nothing new came up. Not even a clue as to her husband's whereabouts.

On the fourth week since Sasuke's expected arrival, the rosette thought she should have already been accustomed to his absence by now.

Ironically though, it was tearing her up more and more. The thought the she might be a 26-year-old widowed mother scared her as much as death. Moreover, the thought that Sasuke is no longer alive scared her as much as being a widow.

She imagined herself waking every morning without that familiar masculine scent beside her or two mugs of coffee prepared on the table when she goes down to the kitchen or seeing no father to kiss her daughter good-night or sleeping without her own good-night kiss. The possibility of it all, and the fact that most of these are happening now, made her the crestfallen and beaten like a defeated warrior.

She realized that she could never grow accustomed to this kind of life, this life without Sasuke.

One cold, gloomy night, Sakura became restless and sleepless (not that she ever had a good sleep since then) as she felt a certain pain in her womb. She stood up with difficulty and suddenly felt a thick, warm liquid oozing downwards on her thighs.

It was blood.

She clutched her tummy as the pain kept growing more and more intolerable. She called the paramedics and soon enough she was screaming with all pain in the labor room.

She can hear the doctors telling her to push, all the noises the machines made, but in her mind was only pain. Not even Sasuke crossed her mind at those moments.

Just the fact that she was about to bring her daughter into this world.

The minutes turned to hours in an agonizing pace. The rosette's screams echoed throughout the whole room

"Come on, Uchiha-san, just one more big push." With that to assure relief, she gave all the strength left in her.

Above her last scream was a cry she longed to hear. That small, wailing cry of a new life.

A girl was born on the very night of June 9.

Sakura woke up hours later unable to move her legs and felt as though her whole body was drained out of strength, submitted to exhaustion.

She fell back to the bed and when she tried to pull the sheets over, that was when she realized her hand was intertwined with another. It made her want to jerk her hand away, away from such an intimate touch from someone she didn't know.

But instead, she kept calm in an attempt to rationalize.

Her bed's mattress was elevated high enough for her to see only a glimpse of black. The person was asleep face down on the lowered steel bars on the side of the bed.

Giving up, her gaze shifted to the hand that tightly held hers.

"Even in sleep, he's got a pretty strong hold." She thought annoyed but confused.

She stared at their intertwined hands. She was probably so dazed because it took her a good whole minute to realize how familiar it seemed, even the way it felt, the skin, the fingers; something about them stirred a mixed feeling of dread and hope in her.

She carefully woke up whoever fell asleep beside her.

The person stirred.

The moment for him to rise seemed so long, like an hour passed before Sakura started to see him lift his head.

"Sorry to disturb you sir but-" The rosette was quickly cut off. Her mind stopped realizing that she was in bed, that she gave birth hours ago, the she was in the hospital.

All she could think about was just this man, smiling lazily but happily at her.

"Sasuke!" Sakura cried out as she tightly wrapped her arms around his neck.

Sasuke could only smile.

"Sasuke, oh my God, Sasuke. I'm not dreaming, right? Oh my God, please don't tell me this is just a dream." Sakura blurted without much thought while her hot tears streamed down on the whiteness of her husband's shirt.

"Want me to pinch you?" The raven-haired man teased, his hand caressing Sakura's back, assuring her without words that this was real.

He was really here.

For the next two hours, Sasuke explained his reason for the delay.

Sakura's guess was right; one of his teammates was taken hostage with an exorbitant ransom. A single word about the hostage, and the head bandit would have had to kill a teammate of theirs. It wasn't easy trying to get him back, not when the enemy was as wise and clever.

"It was only much difficult since the whole mission assigned to us was like a set-up to get stats on our tactics and abilities."

All Sakura could do was cry in relief like she suppressed all those tears when in reality she thought she had none to shed anymore.

Sasuke's fingers found itself pulling back strayed locks of pink hair and wiping off Sakura's tears.

"You should stop crying by now, Sak, I'm here. Shouldn't you be happy?" He smiled softly, his onyx eyes matching his smile.

Really, he was just glad that Sakura was finally beside him.

"Idiot, I am happy. Tears of joy." Sakura retorted with a light punch and a small, jaded smile.

"Just," The rosette started with her hands entwined in the bed sheets as she bit her lower lip. Sighing, she spoke, "Just don't scare me like that again."

Sasuke stood up and placed a deep kiss on her lips.

He knew he couldn't promise that.

They both knew he couldn't promise that.

Suddenly a knock was heard.

"Come in." Sasuke called out and a petite blonde nurse entered with an infant wrapped in pink.

"Mr. and Mrs. Uchiha, the baby's ready for feeding time." The nurse chirped happily as though she was a relative who anticipated this child.

Sakura reached out with trembling hands.

_A mother_, she thought_, I'm really a mother._

After the nurse briefed her on how to do proper breastfeeding, and all the while Sasuke was blushing unnoticeably, the three of them were left in privacy.

The dried tearstains on Sakura's cheek were quickly scalded by new ones as their baby adorably snuggled in her arms. Sasuke calmly approached them two with suppressed excitement that made his hands shake.

He could only smile speechlessly as his deep black orbs were melted by their daughter's own.

"And I thought our wedding was the happiest moment in my life." He spoke as though in a daze.

Yes, their wedding was the happiest moment in his life. But this moment of pure contentment and joy, the joy of seeing his own daughter beam at him with her eyes…it was unrivalled.

Sakura could only smile.

There was going to be new missions for Sasuke soon enough, maybe even more dangerous than the last one. Then later, she'll be assigned to missions after her leave. All their life will be back to a 50/50 line between life and death and chances are they might never see their daughter grow up, or that she will have to face the same nights and days that Sakura did during Sasuke's absence.

With their life as a shinobi, there was no assurance that they were going to be complete and always happy.

Sakura cried at the thought of it.

"What happened now?" Sasuke exclaimed out of surprise and worry.

"I'm scared, Sasuke, scared that with this shinobi life that we live might one day make our family incomplete, scared that any of us might never get to see each other again, scared that-"

Sakura was cut off with Sasuke's lips kissing her. He really couldn't alleviate those worries because they were real possibilities, after all their teammate that was taken for hostage did have a family too and with one little misstep could have made them, as Sakura said, an incomplete family.

Sasuke wasn't going to lie just to assure her.

Their kiss deepened…in fear, in longing, in passion until they needed to breathe.

Sasuke, then, pulled Sakura and their daughter in an embrace.

"The future is far off…or maybe too close…but this moment is passing. I'd cherish it instead of worrying for something that hasn't happened yet."

Sakura smiled.

And that moment was suddenly the only thing that mattered to her more than the time, more than the future, more than the world.

* * *

_Apologies for any errors (e.g. grammar, misspellings, style, logic in story [im worried about that], etc.)_

_I wrote this a year ago after reading a Barbara Cartland novel...although none of the story plot was inspired by the novel._

_Just the writing style mostly._

_And lots of revising, really._

_I'm kind of baffled at myself though...I mean, seriously, what is it with romanticism and pregnant women? I seem to be really drawn to that...or maybe, it's just the fact that I enjoy messing up the character's original personalities through their moodiness (wife) and love (husband)._

_I guess I like OOCness...but not too much._

_I hope I was able to pull this off well._

_Reviews of any shape, kind, form, volume, severity, perimeter, and area are greatly appreciated._

_Thank you!_


End file.
